AWS Certified Data Engineer – Associate (DEA-C01) — Question 2

A company created an extract, transform, and load (ETL) data pipeline in AWS Glue. A data engineer must crawl a table that is in Microsoft SQL Server. The data engineer needs to extract, transform, and load the output of the crawl to an Amazon S3 bucket. The data engineer also must orchestrate the data pipeline.
Which AWS service or feature will meet these requirements MOST cost-effectively?

Answer options

• A. AWS Step Functions
• B. AWS Glue workflows
• C. AWS Glue Studio
• D. Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow (Amazon MWAA)

Correct answer: B

Explanation

AWS Glue workflows is the most suitable option as it is specifically designed for orchestrating ETL jobs and managing data workflows within AWS Glue, making it a cost-effective choice. Although AWS Step Functions can orchestrate tasks, it may not be as tailored for ETL processes as Glue workflows. AWS Glue Studio is focused on creating and managing ETL jobs, but it lacks the orchestration capabilities needed here. Amazon MWAA is a more complex solution that may incur higher costs for what is required in this scenario.